Invited Talk: SKI's Efforts on Climate Change and Waste Issue

SK Innovation(“SKI”) sets agenda for solving environmental issues such as climate change and challenges of waste recycling in pursuit of creating social value.

Since the industrialization, the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere has increased rapidly, and the current trend of emissions is expected to drive into an irreversible climate catastrophe at the end of 21st century. In addition to reducing CO₂ emissions directly, it is also essential to R&D new technologies such as CO₂ capture & utilization (CCU). SKI is investigating and evaluating CO₂ utilization technologies for determining their potentials in technical as well as economical aspects.

In addition to those efforts on mitigating climate change, developing solutions for plastic pollution which recently became one of the biggest environmental concerns is being focused. Due to attractive properties, lower costs and more, global production of virgin polymer reached up to 330 million tons in 2016 but only 16% of them have been collected for recycling and over 20% are presumed to be leaked into our nature. SKI performs long-term strategy for moving towards a circular economy combined with its Open Innovation efforts to accelerate the development of innovative recycling technologies.

Due to the exponential growth of battery electric vehicle, it is forecasted that ~150GWH of EV batteries will be retired in 2030, which might cause social problems. SKI has been developing a battery recycle technology to recover lithium as LiOH from waste batteries.